Spirit of the West
by Supernova95
Summary: Robin was on the way to his sister's graduation ceremony, but when she is kidnapped he is going to need the help of his friends to get her back. AU
1. Chapter 1

**Umm hi, this is my first Fanfic and I haven't quite found my way round the site yet so hope it's okay... there will be more chapters... this part is from a few years ago ****and I hope you enjoy it, and comment and review, I'd love to hear what you think :D**

******Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans or Batman... although it would be cool if I did :)**

* * *

It was the coldest winter on record for Gotham City so much snow had fallen that it was at least three feet deep on every sidewalk. Snow ploughs ploughed the streets at ten minutely intervals to stop the build-up becoming too much to handle. Nobody bothered to venture out in their cars anymore and the streets were becoming increasingly unsafe. The police no longer ruled Gotham, the criminal did. Even for The Batman attempts to bring back control were futile there was just too many of them he had to find another way…

With his cowl hanging round his neck, Batman sat at his computer looking at the monitor; the Bat-wave was on constantly and was becoming an annoyance. The elevator buzzed and Batman's old butler, Alfred, stepped out of it holding a tray with two cups of hot chocolate.

"Alfred there are too many of them, the minute I put some away more just show up to take their place" Batman said without turning round "They must be up to something bigger or even they wouldn't bother to get up in the morning... thanks Alfred" taking the hot chocolate " I need help."

"Which reminds me to remind you that you are expected at Harvard at noon for your daughter's graduation ceremony" Alfred said coolly "personally I am surprised she stayed after what happened, but then again determination runs in the family" Alfred continued with raised eyebrows directed at Batman who studied the monitor one last time

"There's nothing more I can do here let's go" he got up and walked casually to the elevator the doors opened just before stepping in he turned round and added "well are you coming?"

"Certainly sir, let's just hope Gotham can handle things while we're gone"

* * *

Robin was smiling. He never smiled. Looking around his room made him happy; he was going to see his sister for the first time in months and he was going to fool around with his friends doing it. Everything was perfect, the cameras were in place, the sensors were perfectly aligned, connected and he had the receiver. He even remembered to put new batteries in. The only thing that worried him was the information he was giving out about himself and his family. He quickly dismissed the thought; he could trust his friends, couldn't he? He stopped smiling. He had butterflies, what if it didn't work? What if he lost four of his friends that day? What if he was late? Well it was too late to change it now. The thought comforted him a little bit but they also unnerved him. He could change nothing now the first domino had toppled, a chain reaction was in place and there was no stopping it. He felt like the Ozone layer… now he was beginning to think like his sister. He was determined to leave on high spirits. His friends would understand, he would understand if it was one of them and his friends trusted him, he was their leader; he had nothing to worry about.

* * *

The helicopter was slowly making its way through the blizzard. After a while the snow became thinner and then fizzled out to heavy rain, spitting and finally sunshine as the helicopter landed at Harvard University. By the time Bruce Wayne sat at his seat the ceremony was ten minutes away from starting. He picked up his program and scammed the list of graduates looking for the name that stood out. He found it on the second page of the extensive list. She had a line dedicated to her; it had an extensive list of qualifications on it.

"She takes after her parents" Alfred said smiling at Bruce lovingly, " what does the asterix mean?"

"It means that she is the graduate that has been chosen to speak at the ceremony" Bruce replied so causally that it received a raised eyebrow from his butler "she was practising on me a last week, it's very good" he added hastily. The arena was almost full with proud parents, Bruce looked around the entrances for Annistasia's other invited guest, but he was nowhere to be seen.

"Five minutes sir, there is still time, young Master Richard does like to cut it a bit close" Alfred reminded Bruce.

"Yeah, but this is even closer than usual, I know he now lives on the other side of the country but he can at least show up to his own sister's graduation..."

* * *

The seating area was full of students of all different ages, Annistasia was the youngest and the one with the most qualifications to her name, the rest of the people in her classes were at least five years older than her (all apart from her best friend, Sofia, who was sixteen), and yet she had been asked to make the graduation speech. A million things were going through her mind, nerves were taking over, and there were just so many people in the stadium.

"Nervous?" Annistasia jumped at the voice of her friend

"A bit!" the friends exchanged warm smiles which settled some of Annistasia's nerves.

"Hey Tia, wouldn't it be cool if the guy's athletics team could've got this reception?" she laughed Tia also smiled and they grasped hands "Tia, you're going to be perfect like always, I'll be here with my fingers crossed all the way through if you want me to." She looked at her friend's face and asked "come on Tia what's wrong, you can tell me, I'm your best friend"

"My father's here, I just want to make him proud" Tia confided in her friend

"You're the smartest fourteen year old in the country, heck you smarter than most of the world's population, if you father is not proud of you then I will have serious words with him, who is he?" Sofia replied stressing the last part of her sentence sarcastically.

"Urr well, he's umm… Bruce Wayne" Tia lifted her head a little.

Sofia stared at her friend, open mouthed not quite believing what she was being told

"Wait a minute, we've known each other for four years, right, and only now, only NOW do you mention that your dad is a multi-billionaire, NOW!" her friend had a look of astonishment mixed with warmth, this looked like a pig that was stuck pushed up against a piece of glass, it made Tia forget all her nerves and truly laugh.

"You'd better get backstage the ceremony's about to begin"

* * *

The world is made up of three types of people; the good, the bad and the greedy. The greedy would do anything for what they desire, even kidnap a defenceless fourteen year old daughter of a multi-billionaire...

* * *

"All the students at Harvard University have done outstandingly well, but this year's top graduate and winner of the International Senior Michelin Award for her breakthrough teleportation invention, Annistasia Wayne" stadium burst into applause. No one came out onto the stage. The announcer disappeared behind the curtain. There was a sudden flash of light. A plume of smoke completely covered the stage. The audience were frozen with shock. The smoke cleared and a figure could just be made out, if he wasn't wearing a bright pink pig suit then he would have been virtually impossible to see in the chaos of a stage.

* * *

"Oink oink, Wayne, oink if you ever want to oink see your daughter again we want oink seven million dollars cash oink we will contact you later with oink the details of the drop-off circumstances oink, if you fail to comply then we will not hesitate to oink dispose of you precious Tia oink." Smoke filled the stage again and he was gone. Bruce immediately got up off his seat and ran down the stairs, taking them two at a time; he jumped onto the stage and into the smoke. As the last of the wisps of the smoke screen had cleared Bruce Wayne could be seen, distraught and making a call on his mobile...

* * *

"What's oink that" a pig-man grabbed Tia by the throat he was indicating to her Batwave.

"Just my PDA reminding me about the graduation speech, I'm very forgetful!" she lied, normally she would never have convinced anyone with her lying but the pig like creatures were very stupid, and they bought it which caused Tia to believe that there was someone else pulling the strings. "I'll just turn it off" Tia surreptitiously wired the Batwave up to an invisible headset her father had given her for her birthday...

* * *

"Master Bruce, are you ok? In the circumstances?" Alfred inquired out of breath from running down the stairs. People where shouting… screaming; sirens were howling and Bruce Wayne was silent. To him everything was going in slow motion; there was no sound just an empty world that had sucked all the air out of his lungs.

"It's all my fault" he said in a whisper, then turned to Alfred "who would want to kidnap Tia, no one even knew she was my daughter, so to speak."

"No one but them, Master Wayne"

"I know Alfred, I should never have let her come here, I should have made her stay in…"

"It is not your fault Miss Wayne was very committed to coming here after she was accepted and anyway as you said no one but they knew who she was and who you are so they would have probably found her anyway, you tried your best."

"Thank-you Alfred, we need to get In touch with a couple of banks, we need to play it their way for now, and where is Richard?, we need his help."

* * *

"Dude you have been in there for ages, other people need to use the bathroom you know" he was banging on a door "Grrr, I give up" he stopped and turned away, just then the door slowly opened, "thank-you final… urrr Robin?" the room was empty and the window was opened, he walked hurriedly away from the door and to another nearby. He burst into the room and looked around angry. All he saw was a short note scribbled on a Wal-Mart coupon on the bed. He read it a couple of times just to make sure he was reading it correctly;

_Guys_

_Sorry I had to go but It's sort of family business _

_See ya later _

_R_

_P.S. please don't let Beast Boy into the fridge the cake is for someone special._

'Should've known something like this would happen, what do we do if some big shot super villain attacks, typical Robin being all mysterious' the thought ran through his mind all the way till the houses living room on the top floor he opened the door and proclaimed

"Guess what guys Robin's left"

"And…" came a voice from the corner of the room

"Rae, Robin just got up and left, without telling us where he went, you don't find that a little strange."

"No, if he wanted us to know where he was going he would tell us" she got up, her long black cloak collected around her feet as she hovered, her face was pale and emotionless, her eyes stared at the man with the intent of not backing down.

"Have you forgotten the Red X episode?, Robin went completely psycho and all the time we didn't know where he was and he pretended to be a criminal to get in with Slade, or the time when Slade tried to make him his apprentice by implanting US with nanobots to kill us anytime he liked unless Robin did everything he said… we shouldn't just let Robin off on his own, it nearly always almost gets us killed!" he was out of breath. He looked wound the room as he slowly breathed. Everything was as it should be, the sofa was in the same place, and whole, the TV was still there and the remote nowhere to be seen, he could imagine the fun Beast Boy and himself would have looking for it, it was a tradition. They might complain about at the time; but they secretly loved it. The kitchen looked alright, so did the computers. There didn't seem to be anything dangerous of unidentified around. Raven had been watching him as closely as he had surveyed the room. He eyes were narrow and her face was almost smiling. He had calmed down when Raven said

"Aww Cyborg, you sound like Starfire being all concerned about him like that. I haven't forgotten about his past but, to be perfectly honest Slade is gone and we watched Robin burn his Red X costume so I don't think we have anything to be worried about, I also don't think we should get involved in Robin's personal life." Then she hovered over the sofa and soundlessly sat down. There was an awkward silence. The two looked at each other, as if in a staring contest, then Raven silently went back to her reading and Cyborg went to make waffles. The silence was only broken when they heard the door open.

"My nose is burning." The voice of a girl, who was so happy it radiated out of her, came from behind the two quarrelling teens, in the direction of the door.

"Star what happened, are you OK, why is your nose burning?" Cyborg said rushing over to the girl

"Isn't that the earth expression for when you are being talked about, 'my nose is burning'?" the girl asked inquisitively,

"Urrr, normally it's my ears are burning, "

The girl looked disappointed at the answer and simply answered

"Oh" her mood had suddenly fallen and she flew with her head hung to the sofa and sat down next to Raven. Her head suddenly jolted up as though she had remembered something,

"May I enquire about what you were conversing about before I entered the room?"

"Star, Robin's gone…" Cyborg started…

"GONE! Gone where? Is he OK? When will he be returning? Who is he with?" Star looked visibly shocked, shaken and scared.

"Star, calm down, to be perfectly honest we don't know" Cyborg tried to reassure her but failed.

"Calm down? How can I calm down? Robin is out alone and we don't know where he is, why aren't we searching for him? Have you forgotten the Red X or the Slade, what happens if Robin is captured or worse…"her voice trailed off and Cyborg looked sufficiently smug at Raven

"See Rae we should be looking for him"

"Really?" she said sarcastically "Cyborg you can if you want but don't blame me if Robin is upset with us afterwards an anyway by now he could be on the other side of the galaxy."

"Actually he's on course for Boston, and he's late" the three teenagers suddenly looked around the room confused

"Robin?..." Starfire questioned

"Yes Starfire" Robin's image suddenly appeared on the monitor they use as a TV

"Robin…O Robin we have been so full of the worry, please don't go off again without the notification" Starfire pleaded clasping her hands together.

"We? As far as I can see it was only you and Cyborg that were worrying about me" Robin said slyly

"Wait how long have you been watching us?" Cyborg demanded

"Since you picked up the letter, state of the art notification system running on pressure sensors, my sister invented it" he replied happily.

"Dude, that is so not cool!"

"Yes it is Cy. Yes. It. Is!" he finished with a smug smile.

"So… when will you be back?" Raven asked slowly

"Yes Robin. When will you be returning? and why could you not take us with you to the Boston?" Starfire demanded annoyed.

"Star, you're an orange alien, with bright green eyes orange hair and a purple costume that looks like you have come out of the 60's, Cyborg is half man half machine who has a gun instead of an arm, Raven is a pale girl with a gemstone, on her Ajna Chakra, blue leotard and matching cloak, and Beast Boy is green, and well… green." Robin stated

"Yes and you're a teenage boy in tights, a red shirt that looks like a waste coat, a black cape and a mask, it's not like you can just blend in with a crowd wherever it is you're going" Cyborg replied with the same annoyed tone as Starfire.

"I'm going to a my sister's graduation, and, I'm going as my 'secret identity', no one will suspect a thing" the Titans looked dumbstruck at the monitor

"You…you…you have a secret identity and you didn't tell us!" Cyborg whined

"Urmm… don't you guys have secret identities?" Robin inquired as if he knew what the answer was going to be

"Only Beast Boy, which we know of" Cyborg replied

"WHAT! Only beast boy, I thought we all had secret identities and that you guys just like being all heroed up and so didn't change." Robin harboured a distressed and puzzled look "wait…so I've lived with you guys for what now, a year and you never once thought to mention that you didn't have lives outside the Teen Titans?" At that Cyborg was furious,

"Why is it always our fault? You know you could have told us that you had a 'secret identity'" Cyborg fumed wafting air quotes at the monitor "you're supposed to be our leader, but half the time we can't even trust you to tell us who you are, where you're going or what you're doing!"

Robin looked down for a minuet contemplating, he looked slightly upset, the thought that he was the only one with a secret identity never came to his mind, every superhero he knew had one, then again he didn't know many superheroes. He slowly raised his head and looked directly at his friends

"Do you guys really want to know who I am" he started slowly

"Oh yes pleases Robin. It would be so nice to know your identity of the most secret!" Starfire said excitedly

"Then there is a jet that I was sent in the hanger, fly to these co-ordinates, I'll be waiting" he cut off. The monitor went black and the three Titans were left staring at each other. They stood up together and turned to the door as if they were sharing brainwaves the three parted with Cyborg saying

"I'll get BB"

* * *

**Thanks for reading... please review :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi again...I'm back :) wooo chapter 2, I hope you like it. Please tell me if you do/ don't / just want to make a suggestion... please *puppy dog eyes***

**Oh and before you read in my world Bruce is actually going to be a pretty good father, in himself not just in his Batmaning, so heads up you will find him capable of saying the right things at the right time ;)**

**So yeah read, review and enjoy.**

* * *

Boston is one of the most beautiful and historic places in the United States, it is home to the Boston tea party, a historic dockyard, the Bunker Hill monument, and the Red Socks. But at that moment it was home to hundreds of police officers interviewing eyewitnesses, dozens of reporters wanting to get the inside scoop, five Teen Titans and one Batman.

* * *

"Richard where have you been? Tia's been…" Bruce Wayne started

"I know Dad the police filled me in, I got here just after it happened, but was stopped upon entry, I'm sorry I wasn't there" A tear came to his eye, he was blaming himself, if he had just gotten there a little earlier than maybe he could have done something about it. Bruce put his arm round his son, adopted or not, and drew him into his loving chest. Around them there were people running and shouting but they heard none of it. When tragedy strikes, it strikes everyone the same, at that moment they felt like the poorest people in the world, they had lost a loved one. All the riches the world could provide meant nothing to them they simply wanted Tia back. Their loving embrace was interrupted by the sound of buzzing in Bruce's pocket.

"Dad isn't that the…"

"Yeah, I've been ignoring it, it's been going off periodically since Tia was taken" Bruce took the Batwave out of his pocket and went to turn it off when Robin told him to wait. He looked at it a moment and then took out his own Batwave and keyed a couple of buttons. Bruce's Batwave started buzzing again in exactly the same way. Richard looked at his father who understood immediately and for the first time since he arrived, he smiled.

* * *

The Tjet landed at the co-ordinates asked of them but no one was there waiting for them instead all they saw was a billboard advertising Harvard University's graduation ceremony

"Oh where is Robin?" Starfire, longingly, asked

"At Harvard's graduation ceremony" Cyborg said simply. He started to walk towards the sign

"Cy? Where are you…?" Beast boy started but stopped when he saw his friend pointing at the sign 'Guys no Tcar or jet and look over here' "Oh" he said embarrassed that he had not seen the message that Robin had left them a message on the billboard with an arrow pointing behind it. The rest of the Titans followed Cyborg behind the billboard and then stared in awe at the gifts left there Cyborg read the note aloud to the others

"Hey, so where you're going, you need to blend in so please put on the rings meant for you, and enjoy" Robin had left each of the titans an holographic ring so that they could appear more normal, each was marked with either a B,C,R or an S. they took their designated rings and slipped them on. They took immediate effect and each Teen Titan looked as if they were fully human. The four gasped in awe muttering "we love you Robin", "dude this is so cool", "sweet". Only Raven wasn't jumping up and down in excitement

"Holographic rings… yay" she said sarcastically

"C'mon Rae you know you're a little excited, right?" Cyborg said very enthusiastically like he was talking to a child.

"Not really, no" she replied in a monotone

The group stood for a moment examining their new identities;

Cyborg looked fully human again, he was black… obviously, and very athletic. He wore a blue shirt and grey jogging bottoms. Raven on the other hand wore black jeans, a black top and a long black coat like the one Neo wore in The Matrix. Starfire was no longer orange, she had very pale pink skin with deep green eyes, dark brown hair and wore a short flowery dress that puffed when she span. Beast boy had also turned from being green to being white; and wore blue jeans and a green top. After a couple of minutes examining their new holographic existence the group set off to find their leader.

It took them 20 minutes to get into the campus, not because it was hard to find but because they had to sneak past a dozen road blocks.

"This had better be worth it" Cyborg complained as they neared the ceremony

"Cyborg, you're missing the biggest question"

"Yes Rae? And what would that be?" He replied annoyed

"Why would Harvard's graduation ceremony need twelve road blocks" she said in a monotone

The group all looked at Raven; Cyborg turned and opened his mouth to reply but couldn't find the words. Starfire and Beast Boy both gave Cyborg a now-why-didn't-you-think-of-that look and walked on towards the playing fields where the ceremony was being held; but when they got there they realised why they had to get past twelve road blocks. They knew something bad had happened, there were uniformed police, firemen and FBI agents everywhere, they just didn't know why they were there.

"Dudes how are we to find Robin now he could be anyone?" Beast boy exclaimed.

"BB, you're forgetting something; one" he started counting on his fingers "Robin said that he already had a secret identity and so will probably still look similar to what we know him to look like, two, he has all those cool gadgets and keeps replacing things that go wrong in the Ttower and I don't think he steels the money, and three, he said that his sister invented the pressurised system on the note he left so she has to be a genius, so really if you think about it he can only be one person" Cyborg said triumphantly the rest just looked at him dumbstruck

"Cyborg? Who is the secret identity of Robin?" Starfire asked

"Urrr… you guys can't tell?" they all shook their heads "He has to be Dick Grayson, adopted son of the extremely, extremely wealthy Bruce Wayne of Gotham City, whose daughter, Annistasia Wayne, is graduating here today at only fourteen" The three others looked at him in disbelief. They were going to ask him where he found that out but they didn't have the chance as right after he finished four muscular uniformed policemen came and led them away to a building behind the stage. They were shoved through a door and told to wait for the inspector.

They waited.

* * *

"I told them" There had been an eerie and uncomfortable silence between the three men. Tia was always the funny one. Most situations like this were broken by her. It was her thing.

"Told who what?" came the answer, the man who had said it looked up from what he was doing with genuine curios eyes.

"Well I didn't exactly tell them… I might as well have though… I left enough clues…"

"Dick, you're making no sense"

"Sorry Dad" it felt good to be back, he hadn't seen his dad face to face in ages. He took a deep breath, he had done that a lot today, and started to explain "You know that, umm," Dick looked around to see if anyone could hear them, then started again in a whisper "teenage super hero group I sort of started?" Bruce nodded "Well it turns out I'm the only one who has a 'secret' identity, so I left them some clues so they could figure it out." He saw the look on his father's face and quickly added "nothing as drastic as The Riddler, or as difficult, but hard enough to let them feel like they've accomplished something. You're not mad at me, are you?" Dick finished and Bruce just stared at him, then a smile erupted on his face, and he looked like he was going to start laughing.

"What?...What's so funny?" Dick was the most confused person on the planet at that moment. Bruce and Alfred clocked each other and sniggered. Still smiling Bruce explained

"It's quite ironic really, just the other day Alfred and I were having a conversation about how you should have told you're friends your real identity, as I have found out, on many previous occasions that, it isn't prudent to keep things from friends" His voice turned serious and he stared intently at Alfred who acknowledged his comment with a slight bow of his head and a solemn expression. "we have had many conversations about how good you must be at keeping your secret identity"

"Why?" Dick cut in

"Because your friends never even conceived that you could be someone else. I mean, it's alright for them, who probably wouldn't fit in as normal people without holographic rings…" Robin smiled at the coincidence "… but isn't it plainly obvious that you had to be someone else, I mean what did they think you did in your spare time, sleep in your costume?" Dick sniggered a bit at that comment "But I see that you have seen to it that they know who you are, and by the way I wouldn't have done it any other way, or any normal person could deduce the clues" Dick opened his mouth to say that all his clues had been confined to the Titan's private dwellings but before he could Bruce ruffled his hair, in just a way that a fond memory passed in front of his eyes, a memory of Tia that made him so suddenly worried that he threw up, he hadn't meant to it just sort of happened.

The next few minutes passed as a blur to Dick. At first he could vaguely hear Bruce saying

"Dick, Dick, are you OK?" and Alfred mentioning that he would get a mop, then he went dense to the outside world, and was submerged in the memory that had made him sick to the stomach, but more importantly sick to the heart.

He was back in Wayne Manor, in the outskirts of Gotham. Tia and him were playing tag round the house. Dick tripped and broke a vase, so Alfred chauffeured them outside to the grounds, he got to the fountain about fifty metres from the back doors before Tia tackled him to the floor and they both rolled down the quite steep hill behind the fountain, masked from the view of the house. There to seal her victory, she ruffled his hair.

Tears shed from his eyes, he was so worried; he relayed the story to Bruce. He drew him into a fatherly embrace, and shared one of his many pieces of wisdom; "'Emotion is not a weakness that man has to overcome, it is a strength that we must strive for and embrace, it's the line that separates the good from the bad.' You my boy have just overcome the thing that had baffled the male population of this earth since the dawn of man"

"W-What?" Dick stuttered through his tears

"You have just honourably yielded to your emotions, and rightly so, we are after all human." He paused to look at Dick's face, after every moment it was broadening wider with a smile "Was my advice really that good" Dick shot him a did-you-really-just-say-that look and Bruce snorted "I just sounded like an old Tibetan Monk, didn't I"

"To put it simply sir, yes you did" Alfred too was on the brink of laughter at Bruce's astute comment.

* * *

Ten minutes passed and nothing happened. Then they heard footsteps, they grew louder and louder the four started to cower in freight in the corner, the man was outside the door they could see his shadow, he was talking to someone else but they couldn't make out what they were saying. They could hear his hand touch the door knob, it slowly turned and the door opened with a creek, the four friends were faced with a tall muscular figure, like the man who threw them in there but taller and bonier. The man was in shadow but they could tell he was reading off something

"Are you BB, Cy, Rae and Star?" the group gave definite nods even though they were shaking, "You are friends with Mr Grayson?"

"Rob… I… I… I mean Richard, is he being in the ok?" the man gave a confused look at Starfire as though he thought she was from another planet.

"What she meant was is Dick OK" Cyborg translated

"No he's not" the group gasped but before they could say anything the man continued "his sister has been kidnapped by some mutated assailants and Dick and his father are doing all they can to get the ransom money in time for when the drop off instructions are delivered, you need to go through that door and follow the corridor till you get to the end and take the door on the right, he will be waiting for you there." He spoke in a monotone, like he didn't care that one of the most important men in the country's daughter has gone missing. They did what he said. The corridor seemed longer on the inside than looking at it from the outside, they got to the door on the right and went in, there was a set of stairs, the group sighed but went down them anyway, and at the bottom they were greeted with the familiar face of their friend, ash white with streaks down the sides of his cheeks evidence that he had been crying.

* * *

"Hey! Get off me! ...Aggg!" The light of the sun blinded her. Being cooped up in the van had meant her eyes had got accustomed to darkness. Now whilst being dragged out of the van it blinded her. She tried to move her hand to shield her eyes, she couldn't the men had tied them behind her back. She didn't want to close her eyes, lest the men do something important and she missed it. At the moment she needed to find out where she was. Looking round she knew she had left Boston that was for sure. She studied the landscape it was barren. You could see for miles and she saw nothing. Not a plant nor tree, nor any sign of life whatsoever. The ground was cracking due to lack of rain and there was a harsh, but warm, wind. She quickly recovered from the sudden change of light and turned to face her kidnappers. They had taken her out of the van to work with the equipment in the van. To Tia this seemed like a very stupid thing to do, her hands might be tied, but her legs weren't. She turned to escape but found herself staring wide eyed down the barrel of a gun. The man holding it was big, defiantly bigger than her father. He would easily overpower her; and he did. She had tried to back away a few steps, always facing the man, but to no avail. The man simply stepped round her caught hold of the roped that bound her hands, and hoisted her up off her feet. She screamed. Her shoulders felt like they were going to be ripped right out of their sockets. Her eyes prickled with tears of pain. The pain stopped. She realised she was standing on her own. She took a deep breath but the man violently threw her against the van, face first. She was winded, she couldn't breathe, the force of the impact wouldn't let her. The man turned her round, and savagely beat her. Tia was confused; she didn't know what she had done wrong, heck she could barely think with a resident pounding in her head. The man might have been savage, but he was careful. He wasn't punching her anywhere that would leave permanent damage. Somebody wanted her alive and able to think. He stopped and dropped Tia in a crumpled mess on the floor. She finally was able to take a short, but well needed breath.

"Stupid girl, if my superior didn't need you I would have taken the pleasure of finishing you off myself" He had a deep and soothing note to his menacing voice, it sounded familiar, if that was anything to go by in Tia's current state.

"Why?..." Her voice was small and raspy, she coughed and tried to wheeze some moisture into her mouth, it was dry and tasted of dirt. No saliva would come, but it was worth it, the beating had dislodged her Bat-phone from her pocket and it was now lying inconspicuously on the floor beside her.

"Are you nearly done with that, Pig?"

"Yes…Oink… Master"

"Good, then we can get moving again"

Tia felt herself being dragged to her feet by the man. She had no idea who he was or why he had beaten her up, all she knew was that she had just been thrown back into the cold dark truck, and they were off again. At first she thought her plan was working perfectly, she hadn't counted on being beaten senseless. Now she regretted being all chirpy and self-assured. All she could do now was hope that her brother didn't dwindle on the way to rescuing her. At least she hoped he would rescue her, that being said he didn't see him in the crowd at Harvard for the brief moment she had seen it, and Dad and Alfred stood out like a saw thumb, but Richard wasn't there. Maybe he was just late. Yes that's it, he was late. She was trying to reassure herself; it wasn't working. Her head couldn't think, it was throbbing too much. She laughed. She had been in worse states than this with her father and brother; the man hadn't even drawn blood, but she had never been bruised as Annistasia Wayne, one of the, if not the most prized and precious girls in all of America. If only they saw her now… She laughed again. The men, if you could call them that, had vacated the back of the van and migrated to the front where they started the engine, they were moving again, and there was no one left to hear her laugh.

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**Please review :D**


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay chapter 3... this one's a little slow, although I think I put in some nice little moments. Please, please, please tell me what you think. I am all ears to anything you have to say, this is my first Fanfiction and need advice on how to get better so please review :)**

**So ENJOY :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans or The Lion King... I was challenged to get a kids' movie in... sorry being 17 i just couldn't resist :) **

* * *

Starfire immediately ran to her friend and hugged him, her eyes prickled with the threat of tears. She released him. They stared into each other's eyes for what seemed like an eternity but in reality was only a few seconds. He wanted to speak; thank them for coming, but he couldn't. They needed an explanation, he could see it in their faces, a mixture of disbelief, sadness and empathy had exploded onto his friends, and he could do nothing about it.

He could feel the tears building up inside him again; he turned away so they did not see. Starfire reached out for him, to comfort him, but he pulled away, he needed to be alone, he needed to help the search. He was so confused. He turned back to his friends, his face suddenly looked determined. Cyborg shared his expression,

"Just tell us what to do" he said simply

"We have some pigs to catch" he walked through the confused faces and to the stairs, he was going to make things right.

* * *

As the group of friends left Bruce Wayne shared a short smile with his butler, he was proud of the man his adopted son had become and even more proud of what he was yet to grow into. The look on his face suddenly disappeared. Alfred, who had known Bruce all his life, knew exactly what he was thinking

"They would be proud too" Bruce had adopted Dick when his parents were murdered, he saw himself as Dick's father, adopted or not, but in his heart he knew he could never replace the one he lost. Dick probably saw him as some sort of fatherly figure but he didn't know how much he actually needed him. "Sir, you have raised him well, but, if I may sir, you need to stop being them for him, he doesn't need it anymore. He loves them and he loves you, he sees you as a father, you need to give him space, he deserves it." He had answered every thought that was in his head perfectly.

"Thanks Alfred, you always seem to have an answer for everything" he replied.

"Well sir, I am English" That statement truly made Bruce laugh.

"And I thought all Englishmen were stuck up posh butlers"

"Why you…" Alfred was laughing too now Bruce sat down at a nearby table and put his phone on the table top, expecting a call any moment.

* * *

It seemed to the group being with one of the most important people in the country at that moment helps when faced with twelve road blocks. The Titans walked through them without anyone questioning who they were or what they were doing. It took them a mere five minutes to get back to the Tjet and take off. Throughout it all Robin kept his determined face on while the rest of them just looked confused. It was only when Robin was punching co-ordinates into the auto-pilot system that Beast Boy plucked up the courage to say

"Dude, where are we going?"

"To find my sister" Robin said definitively, he was warning them not to pester him but as usual Beast Boy didn't catch the hint

"Yes but where are we going exactly" when he said this Cyborg slapped his own head with his had in exasperation, Raven rolled her eyes and mumbled something under her breath; Starfire just looked confused. "What?" Beast Boy questioned. He didn't know why they were looking at him like that, Cyborg suddenly patched a private line to Beast Boy's section of the Tjet, when he was finished Beast boy was silent and looked vaguely upset. The rest of the journey passed in silence.

The Tjet came to a hover over a barren landscape. Robin swore. You could see for miles. And he saw nothing. These were her last known co-ordinates but there was no sign of his sister; a get-away-vehicle; or any pig-men.

"Star, Rae, I need you to do a recon, if you find anything suspicious, check it out, you're looking for this girl" he displayed a picture of his sister on the screen the two nodded. As they left Starfire tried to comfort Robin

"Your sister is very pretty, it's almost like she sparkles", but she was unsure that it worked. Robin's face was sullen his usually bright eyes dull, determined and tearing,

"It's my fault" he whispered and dropped his head.

* * *

"Be careful with her, we don't want to ruin our precious cargo." The man stood in front of the girl who the mutated pig minions of the Order of the Black Sun had just dragged onto the plane, towering over her; he lifted her chin with his finger. He was going to enjoy breaking her for the Masters, after all the pain and misery she had caused him and his family she deserved it. He quickly retracted his finger as she went to bite it. For that she got a backhand to her pretty little jaw, her head sprung back to face him as though she was a bop bag in the gym. "Feisty little one; aren't you? My, my, we are going to have some fun" he taunted her. After the beating he gave her back in the desert he didn't expect her to be so… alive at the moment. Then again he hadn't really aimed for anything; important. "The Masters' orders, you're going to be delivered with 'minimum trauma'... but then again what the Masters don't know will hurt you" He saw a flash of fear in her eyes, and he liked it. Then just as soon as it came it was gone. "Damn, this girl is one strong willed spoiled rich kid" he thought to himself, and he was surprised when he had a pang of admiration for her, given her fate. A smile curled at his lips at the thought.

"My dad's going to come and find me and when he does we'll see who's going to get hurt!" it was all across her face; that sounded better in her head. He barked with laughter and crouched down to her level, drew his knife and aimed it at her throat. Obviously he wasn't going to do anything with it. The Masters wouldn't allow her to be harmed in that way; it was far too obvious and detrimental to their plans, however it was still an oppressive position to hold her in, so much so that she desperately inched herself away from the knife. Soon enough she had scrambled her way to the wall of the plane they were in, even with her hands fastened tightly around her back.

"Aww your billionaire playboy daddy's gonna come and save you, is that right? Well I've got news for you little missy, if he does come, and I seriously doubt that, a man like your father wound never get his hands dirty; but if he does come he will be too late. There won't be anything left of his precious Annistasia but a rotting corpse. In fact, you know what, I might even mail you back to him, do you think he like that surprise first thing in the morning" That did it; her eyes were completely overcome with fear. Fear that he had instilled in her, he chortled at his own brilliance. What a present she would be for the Masters of Darkness if she was already broken. Mentally fried, her spirit burned until it turned to wisps of smoke. A very good present indeed, he may even get a promotion out of it… Commander Himngen, yes he liked the sound of that. But he didn't like her whimpering… he had her blindfolded and gagged she had seen too much already. Then, when only the sound of the aeroplane filled the air, Captain Himngen sat smugly down, admiring his day's work and smiling at what tomorrow would bring, "Yes" he thought to himself "the future is bright indeed"

* * *

The Tjet landed. Plumes of dust surrounded them. Robin let a long breath and closed his eyes, he was losing hope. The dust settled. The three boys jumped out. All they could see was orange and blue. It looked like Mars. Robin kicked a rock, it didn't budge. He kicked it again and gasped in pain. He was letting his anger get the better of him, his father always told him to let his anger go as it would only be the making of his undoing but he couldn't. His anger was keeping him going, carrying on, without giving up on hope. His heart skipped a beat, he felt sick. He couldn't give up, or even think about giving up, it wasn't him and he owed it to Tia.

He had slumped down next to the Tjet, his friends and thought it best not to disturb him, seeing his mental condition was as it was. He scanned the landscape again. He could see some black objects on the horizon, they were covered by heat haze. He felt as if he was losing his sight, everything was blurry; it was so hot he couldn't concentrate. The ground looked cracked. It reminded him of The Lion King. Tia had introduced it to him on her last summer vacation.

It was about a lion cub called Simba; who had lost his father in a stampede. His uncle Scar had tricked him into thinking it was his fault when in actual fact Scar had killed Mufasa. Simba had then run away from home and collapsed in a desert, all hope lost. He had been found by a meerkat called Timone and a warthog called Pumba, they became his fast friends and after some long years he was found by his childhood friend Nala, and they had gone back home and saved the day and they all lived happily ever after. He felt like Simba, he had lost his sister, and he blamed himself, they were now in a desert and his friends had come to his rescue. The one problem was that Tia was not dead, they wouldn't go to all this trouble just to kill her, he could still get his sister back whereas Simba couldn't get his father back, there was still hope, and he was not about to give up on that.

Robin snapped back up, his mind had lost focus, now it was as crystal clear as ever; he was going to get his sister back and have his happily ever after. He just needed to find a way to do that. Two people were slowly approaching from the horizon, he thought maybe… no, it was just Rae and Star coming back. His heart fell again. They were coming back empty handed.

* * *

Nothing. Fifteen square miles and nothing, no sign of any life.

"Robin, did you read the co-ordinates right? Because we have been searching for hours and seen no one."

"Yes I read the co-ordinate right, Rae, she's here, somewhere"

Robin wondered how long he had been sat down, it hadn't felt like hours, but then again perception did some strange things sometimes.

"Hey Robin," Cyborg said looking at the ground, Robin then stared at him "did you drop your PDA thingamajig?"

"What? No. Why d'ya ask?"

"Because there's one on the floor here…"

"That's Tia's, no wonder the signal I've been picking up is stationary! She was here, this proves it... but where did they go" he was talking to himself, looking around. The landscape was unforgivable to the young inexperienced tracker. if only Tia could have left a trail of bread crumbs for him to follow. Then Robin remembered the PDA. He ran over to Cyborg and snatched the PDA off of him, he quickly typed something in and it started to glow blue. Robin then sat it down on the Tjet's wing and a holographic envelope appeared. Robin smiled and tapped the hologram twice to open it, a letter appeared.

_Hey Bro,_

_Didn't know how else to tell you this;_

_I'm being taken to an air field thirty miles north of here, then I don't know where we're going. Go there they should have a flight plan and if they don't I still have my birthday present from dad._

_Please hurry, I don't know how long I can stand to be around these things, they're really gross, oh and there's this big mean one, calls himself Captain Himngen, get dad to check him out will you?_

_Tia_

Cyborg and Beast Boy's jaws dropped so much that Robin thought they were going to hit the floor. They were staring at the PDA in awe. He chuckled slightly at them. As advanced as the Ttower was it held nothing on the workings of her sister's mind. She had developed it completely from scratch. It had a state-of-the-art GPS system (which he had used to track its signal); holographic messaging system; an internet connection _anywhere _in the world due to its connections to the Wayne enterprises' satillites; state-of-the-art security system (including fingerprint and retina scanners, a voice print comparer and a personal in-phone assistant who she liked to call 'Jeeves') but the crowning jewel of the PDA his sister designed was the new battery it ran off of. It was called a Crimston battery and even he didn't know what that entailed, but it did mean that it won't run out of battery for the next three hundred and fifty years however much you use it…

"I love having a sister who's a genius" Robin was beaming at the thought of just how smart his sister was, she was so close to finding a renewable clean energy source to power the world into the next decade and beyond and then she was just snached like a poacher and his prey. It was barbaric. With renewed conviction, Robin was started up the Tjet's engines. He was going to find his sister.

* * *

The journey to the air field took only a couple of minutes but to Robin it seemed like hours. The airfield was a strip of tarmac and the smallest hut imaginable. To the titans it looked more like a garden shed. At the end of the runway there was a petrol pump, the strip was only supposed to be a re-fuelling stop, Robin's heart sank. Would they keep flight plans? Surely they had to…

The inside of the hurt was just as aseptically pleasing as the outside. It actually looked as if someone had come and sneezed all over it.

The operator of the airfield looked about seventy he was sitting on a chair behind a desk the width of the hut hunched over, face flat on the table, asleep and drooling. Starfire timidly approached him and whispered

"Excuse me… Urrr… my friend passed through here with the men of pigs and I need to be knowing where she went please?"

All of a sudden the man snored and Starfire jumped back in fright. "Excuse me it's not very nice to be asleep when someone is talking to you"

"Star he can't hear you…he's asleep" Robin cut in. He walked up to the man and tapped him on the shoulder. He woke with a start. His eyes seemed to bulge at the sight of a boy in a cape towering over him; his jaw dropped in awe at the teen titans, and then suddenly snapped shut as he was overcome with fear.

"Wh-wh-what do you want?" he stammered getting up from his chair and stumbling backwards into the wall of the hut "please don't hurt me, I didn't do anything" he closed his eyes and looked away waiting for a harsh blow to come, it never did.

"Dude, we're not here to hurt you" Cyborg said brightly

"No, we just want information" Robin continued

The five of them surrounded the man and Beast Boy helped him to his feet. He relaxed a bit; took a long breath; managed a smile and said

"What can I do you for?"

"I need to know the flight plan of the plane that took off from this airfield a couple of hours ago"

"What?" the man looked confused "I haven't seen a plane overhead let alone take off from here in four weeks; you must have the wrong air field"

The titans shared the confused look that the old man had, Robin didn't he had the same bright face of determination he had when he first entered the hut, in fact he was on the brink of laughing,

"You're a re-fuelling station right?" Robin asked

"Yes we get refilled every week…"

"Check your gauge…" The pump had obviously been used "…a plane has been through here and it has my sister on it…"

* * *

**So there you have it another chapter gone :) I wrote most of this a few years ago** _cough before Siri ever graced the thoughts of apple cough_** (with minor adjustments being made) and had forgotten how fun it was to write egocentric sadistic minions... yup I'm not weird at all... much :)**

**Please review :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4... I think I was watching Batman Begins when I wrote this so enjoy the references, this is leading up to something I promise... and thanks to everyone for sticking with it :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans or Batman**

* * *

The man was dumbstruck; never before had he missed a flight at his air field.

"I-I- don't know what... how…" he stammered "I may be old but never before have I missed an aircraft at my air field" he said definitively.

"There's a first time for everything right?" Beast boy said with a smile, the old man just glared at him.

"Urrr Robin?" Cyborg said with the same tone as he did when he found Tia's PDA

"Yes Cy…"

"I don't think he was asleep by accident" Cyborg was holding a can of sleeping gas. The pig-men had put the old man to sleep so they could go unnoticed, that meant no flight plan.

"Ugrr, now how…" Robin said annoyed but then realised something "…don't worry" his tone was brighter; he picked up his phone and walked outside.

"What's he doin' now?" Beast Boy asked and got shrugged shoulders as a reply. The Titans waited patiently inside the hut as Robin passed backwards and forwards outside talking to someone and making modifications to a hand held device. All the time he was smiling, once he even laughed. Starfire held a permanent look of distress

"He's forgotten his mind. I want my Robin back please"

"Star's right do you think that the stress of losing his sister has finally got to him?" Raven said. All of the faces then turned to Robin who was still smiling

"She's not lost, just temporarily misplaced" He had put down his phone and was headed straight for the door.

"C'mon Titans, we've got a new lead. Thanks for your help" he said brightly and ran to the Tjet.

"No problem" the old man whispered in awe as the Tjet took off.

* * *

The phone rang for the second time... It was Dick. Bruce breathed a sigh of relief, and picked it up.

"Hey Dick, what's the latest?"

"No word yet. We were right; your Batwave buzzing was Tia's distress signal, we found her PDA in the desert, she was being taken to an airfield in the area, but obviously she no longer has her PDA, just her birthday present from you, and I was wondering what is was as she obviously thought it could help us-"

"I don't know if I've said this recently, but that girl is a genius."

"Not helping our present situation dad"

"Right sorry, you remember a few months ago Tia was working on a 'secret project'?"

"Yeah..."

"Well it turned out to be that she was working on this earwig type device that could be hooked up wirelessly to any phone/music player and sat completely camouflaged in your ear; an invisible headset if you would. Well I took her designs and schematics for it and got her a custom made set. I also managed to include that brainwave pattern recogniser she designed last year, so now she basically has control of it just by thinking."

"But how does that help us now? I have her PDA; she can't contact us"

"The headset itself has a GPS tracking system so the user can ask where they are... I should be able to access it from the Batcave it should only take a few minutes to get down there" he stopped talking, there was a very awkward silence.

"Sooo... You're back on Gotham then?"

"Yeah, along with about five FBI agents and GCPD posted at every entrance to the manor. Apparently I am at risk of attack, and so must be guarded 24/7" Dick laughed at how obsolete the guards were at Wayne Manor, but then again appearances must be kept up and so Batman must be guarded. "I've told them that you have been set to a friend's house for the duration so that you are 'away' from any harm" Dick could hear the sarcasm in his father's voice at that last comment "The agents aren't too happy about it but we convinced them and said you would be checking in periodically to say that you are fine. Anyway, Alfred is in such a state, you know how he hates mud tacking police officers, but really he's just trying to keep himself busy, this sort of thing really gets to him." Now he was just distracting both of them from the situation, it wasn't working. "Okay I have the headset up on the monitor, can you sync it with your PDA yourself or do you-"

"I'll be fine, quit worrying, it won't do you any good" he started pressing buttons and a few minutes later he could see what was on the Batcave's monitors "okay, we have to make that easier" he heard Bruce give a laughy exhale of air and Dick couldn't help but smile.

"We'll get Tia on that right away once we get her back" he was keeping optimistic, that was good.

"Well that should be fine Dick, are you sure you're okay, you have everything you need?" he was back with the agents, Dick however caught on and thanked him, and said he had everything he needed. "Good...Dick, stay safe"

"Will do, oh Dad, on the message Tia left me she asked if you could find out anything you could about a Captain Himngen, I think he is one of those who took her"

"Sure Dick, whatever you need, have a good night and we'll see you soon" Dick rang off so did he. Bruce was sitting at a table in the living room the phone was thrown back onto the table and he buried his head in his hands.

"Sir? Don't you think you should have told him?" Alfred said in a low voice so the agents at the door couldn't hear.

"What? that Tia left me a twenty minute long voicemail message of her being beaten up and threatened?" he said incredulously, Dick was beating himself up enough over this, even though it wasn't his fault. There was nothing he could have done about it. He didn't want to worry him even more. "No. It would do him no good to worry like we are." His voice was stern, unfeeling; it was a Batman decision. One he knew he may have to face later but right now keeping Dick in the dark was the right thing to do if he wanted either of them back alive.

* * *

"So Robin who were you on the phone to?" Cyborg asked

"My dad" Robin replied simply.

"Wait, your Bruce Wayne dad?" Beast boy said his eyes fully open, jaw dropped and drooling

"Yeah I wanted to know what he got Tia for her birthday"

"Sooooooooo…" Cyborg said eagerly

"A couple of years ago my sister invented a micro cordless headset that sits invisibly in your ear so you can talk, listen to music, et cetera " he took out his own PDA and accessed some rather complicated schematics "then my dad took her original designs, and had a custom set made putting in new features like; linking them up to her bat cycle, her PDA and even her brain waves, okay so Tia designed that, but hey, it means that she can now do things by thinking and not talking and then he gave them to her as a birthday present.

He's now putting the original designs on the market under Tia's Wayne Industries trademark."

"DUDE I WANT ONE…" Cyborg looked as if he could faint "…your sister is a genius!" he was flipping through the designs wide-eyed and drooling.

"I know, it even includes a tracking device so all we need to do is follow the signal" he started to do something with the guidance systems and engaged the auto pilot and sat back.

* * *

The hours passed slowly, the Tjet was fast but the kidnappers had had a long head start. The Titans had finished all the Lord of the Rings extended editions and still looked nowhere near their destination.

"Eeek Robin! Where are we?" Starfire was looking out of the window. The air around the Tjet had been full of thick, dense, cloud like fog, so they couldn't be seen out of, but now that fog was beginning to clear and the typography of their surroundings was emerging. Around them the Titans could see the shadows of mountains. As they flew the mountains became more defined; they stretched father than the eye could see, disappearing into the clouds above them, the titans gazed in awe; it was more beautiful than anything they had ever seen. They could see snow all around them on the nearest slope they saw some lonesome trees; green against the surrounding white and grey. As far as they could see it was a landscape untouched by the modern world, the people who lived here, were living in harmony with their surroundings, it was a place lost in time. It was magical.

"We're in Tibet" Robin whispered in awe, not wanting to interrupt the mystical ambience around them.

"How can you tell?" Beast Boy said destroying the mood in the Tjet. The others glared at him. He shrank back into his seat and whispered and apology.

"Advanced GPS tracking system…" Robin said now that the atmosphere had been broken. He then sad back in his seat and enjoyed the mesmerising scenery for a few moments before going into a separate explanation "… Long ago," it wasn't that long ago but Robin longed for the mystical energy that surrounded them and to him it seemed like the way to start a story like this one "when I was first adopted by Bruce and became Robin, he told me stories of his time in Tibet with the monks that live in these mountains" Robin paused he could hear each individual snow flake fall on his window, it was like crystal glass chiming, the sound was so beautiful "I was still grieving from the death of my family and so one of his stories really stuck in my brain.

He was telling me about the period in his life after his parents died. He was distraught. He told me he was like a zombie, or a mindless drone, I can't remember which, but anyway, he was just walking through life listing for something, but just not knowing what. He finished school with commendations, and he returned home to Gotham to try to rebuild the life he lost. He couldn't, his life was missing something, there was a void left where his parents had been and nothing seemed to be able to fill it.

Then his parent's murderer was found, Joe Chill, small time crook, got majorly lucky one night when he ran into the Wayne family coming out of the theatre, he hadn't meant to kill anyone but the Waynes wouldn't cooperate and things got out of hand. After that night he wasn't seen for the next decade and a half, but when he was he was caught and brought to Gotham courts to stand trial, he never made it; a citizen shot him when he was brought out of the police van he died instantly. Bruce went down to the Court room that day with the bitter thirst for revenge burning in his head, he had a gun up he sleeve, he thought that Chill dying would give him comfort.

It didn't. All it did was add to his grief. He knew he went to the courthouse that day to get revenge by taking another's life, and he has to carry that burden round with him for the rest of his life. After facing what he was going to do at the court house he couldn't go home to Alfred the only person in this world who cared about him as family and not an orphaned rich kid; so he decided to make Bruce Wayne disappear. He knew what he needed to fill the void was out there; he just needed to find it."

Robin paused. Bruce had told him this story just after he had lost his parents. He was out of control, so full of rage, so full of the desire to get revenge, at all costs. The story brought him back from the gates of despair and made him believe in something again. His reasons for telling it to his friends were mainly selfish, he knew how most kidnapping cases turned out, and it wasn't good for Tia, he believed that in retelling this story it would give him hope that he would see his sister again.

"I don't really know how he ended up in Tibet, I just know that he did and what he found here changed his life. He learnt to be at peace with himself by training in the ancient ways with some monks that lived in these mountains…

He has only told me the specifics of one of these training sessions, here he was not training his body; here he was training his mind. Well mostly, he did master some martial arts but that was taught to him by the locals... Not the monks... Anyway...

He spent most of his days meditating to no avail; his last resort was to consult his new found friend Monk Kunchen to meditate with him. His friend could tell that he had a spiritual block from a traumatic event; the only way for him to get over the block was for him to relive the event.

Bruce never told me how Monk Kunchen got him to do that but he did tell me that once he had, the block had still not been removed. Suddenly Kunchen asked him what he was angry at. Bruce was emotional and visibly shaking after he relived his parent's deaths so instinctively said

"Chill"

Kunchen said he had forgiven Chill the day he didn't use his gun, he asked again what he was angry at, and Bruce had had his eyes closed in meditation, now opened them wide and shouted

"If I'm not angry at Chill then I'm not angry at anything"

Kunchen replied in a calming voice

"No my friend you are angry at something and it is blocking your spiritual pathways"

"I'm angry at my parents, how could they leave me like that, all alone, I was five I needed their guidance but they weren't there to help me" his voice had grown louder, Kunchen still didn't think that was the matter and he told Bruce to look inwardly and find who he was really angry at.

"I'm…" Bruce was sobbing "I'm angry at myself, it's my fault they died, I shouldn't have asked them to go… it was my idea… I was so intent on seeing the film… and they paid the price… I caused their deaths. I'm angry at myself" Tears started to flow down his cheeks, Kunchen was smiling, he told Bruce that the first step in forgiving yourself is attainting something to yourself in the first place, that he had just achieved. He also told Bruce that what happened in the past is in the past. Everything happens for a reason, he told Bruce that he did not cause his parent's deaths, they could have died in a thousand other ways, it was not his fault, and the sooner he realised that the sooner he could move on and forgive himself and release the spiritual block the belief has caused him.

Bruce meditated for two days straight after that. When he emerged from his room he had truly forgiven himself and could move on, he told himself he was going to stop dwelling on the past and look to the future he was going to shape his destiny in his parent's honour, that was the day he decided to become The Batman and fight crime.

He spent the next seven years with the monks and in the neighbouring community, he found love, got married and had Tia but her mother died in child birth. She was brought up by the monks, they educated her and taught her the ways of peace and harmony, she was taught locally in more than four martial arts styles, she was very skilful and at eight she had developed her own style. By this time Bruce had returned to Gotham and reclaimed his family legacy, he was fighting the criminals in a way the Gotham PD could never imagine. A year before Tia came back and joined her father, I was adopted by him. I didn't know anything about her at the time, but got filled in as I got to know her. She is the brightest, kindest, most lovely person I have ever met. I can't lose her." Robin was as stern faced as he was when he was hunting down Slade. He had to find Tia. He had only known Tia for a few years, with her he felt at home, she was around his age, and being with her reminded him of the old days, when he was with the circus. She even let him teach her some acrobatics and trapeze tricks.

He knew that telling the others that story would either inspire them, or make them think his family was crazy, or both. It was a risk he was willing to take; he had to make them understand why.

Starfire was silently crying the others were just staring at him they all looked as if they had just seen ghosts. Each speechless moment to Robin signified that they understood and that they would stand by him no matter what. Friends. Back in Gotham he didn't have that many... He was mostly teased at school for being Bruce Wayne's kid, he only really had Barbra Gordon, the Commissioner's kid, who understood. But that's why he loved being with the Titans, they were his friends and would stick by come hell or high waters; and nothing was ever going to change that. He smiled.

Suddenly his attention was drawn to the monitor, they were getting close. He looked out the front window; it was just as he had imagined. The Temple of the Western Spirit.

* * *

**Yay 4 down... I actually have to start writing chapters again (well I have half of another chapter already written) as these have been from *English school term* year nine and I have only been editing them and therefore they have been a bit decompressed story wise (that was the 'in' thing in our English lessons back then... do not ask me why as I don't know), but please stay with me i do have a plan... I promise :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5 YAY, be happy the bad guys are introduced (formally) :)**

**Please tell me what you think :)**

**Disclaimer: If I owned the Teen Titans do you really think it would have been cancelled?... Teen Titans FOREVER... and ever...and ever :)**

* * *

The temple towered above them. On the outside it was traditional in design, many layers on top of each other, each one smaller than the last, the roofs of each layer coming out to where the last finished. The inside was a different matter. The temple was carved into the mountainside; the inside was enormous, and during the day, somehow completely lit by sunlight.

Robin had been told about the temple by Bruce, he said it was the most amazing place on Earth, and it was. The Tjet was coming into land. Monks were coming out to meet them. That; or they were coming out to make sure they didn't destroy anything, which was actually more likely.

When they had finally neatly landed on a free patch of temple they were surrounded by monks in brown robes. Cautiously, Robin got out of the Tjet. He didn't want to upset the monks as they have done so much for his family. He hoped they would let him tell them what was wrong and understand why he needed their help.

The five friends were led to the main hall of the temple, it was enormous, the walls were lined with huge paintings telling a story; what story they didn't know and didn't have time to ask. The entrance to the room was a huge arch that had a deep blue gem at the top, the ceiling domed inwards with a hole at the centre where rain water or melted snow could fall through into a pool and water feature in the centre of the room. At the end of the room there was a semi-circle of chairs, presumable for the older monks to sit on in 'council', Bruce had told Robin this 'council' met almost every day to discuss matters about the temple. The chairs were full.

"It's as if they knew we were coming" Beast boy whispered, Raven instinctively stomped on his foot and shushed him. Beast Boy silently screamed; composed himself; and walked on with a limp. The monks looked on expressionless. Only one showed any emotion, and that was the one in the centre of the semi-circle, the one Robin nicknamed Grand Monk. He had the sternest and disapproving look on his face Robin had ever seen, it was worse than Alfred when Batman and Robin had come back one night with injuries beyond compare, and his look was bad. However when Robin walked up to him and respectfully bowed in the way Bruce had taught him, it Grand Monk's face lit up and he delivered one of the happiest smiles to the group that they had ever seen.

"You must be Richard; I haven't seen you in years. Bruce has told me so much about you." His voice was calming but authoritative; the other monks had held confused looks, until he mentioned Bruce when each of their faces either lit up like the Grand Monk's or looked at Robin as if he was about to destroy something.

Robin moved to speak, waving his hand in the direction of these monks but the Grand Monk just waved him off and told him that Bruce's stay there had been an eventful one. Robin looked at the Grand Monk reservedly; he knew there was something familiar about him; especially as Bruce hadn't been to Tibet since Robin joined him or at least he thought he hadn't, and they had no phone lines here. He cautiously stepped forward, to get a better look at the monk. Starfire and Raven immediately tried to hold him back a little scared of the monks. He shrugged her off. He soon found his head leaning in and eyes squinting at the monk playfully made his expression sullen, like in a passport photo. Robin suddenly jerked his head back and bore the expression of Archimedes.

"Mr Wu!" he exclaimed obviously excited by his discovery.

"MR WHO?" The Titans said together

"Mr Wu, what are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be a Beijing business man…" He noticed the confused look on his friend's, and the monk's faces "Mr Wu is Wayne Enterprise's Chinese Correspondent… aren't you?"

"Well that's what your company thinks, you see, it paid for my visit to Gotham, and to be perfectly honest, I did inform your company on a lot of the cultural aspects of China and Tibet, but no I am not really who I say I am, and by the looks of things, neither are you" he raised his eyebrows at the cape Robin was wearing. Robin shrunk back and blushed in embarrassment. "I'm surprised Bruce ever forgave me for shouting at him like I did; but it was necessary." He looked as if he was going off into a memory, his voice drifted off and became dreamy "he had a spiritual block and the only way to remove it was to ignite the emotion that was blocked, so I made him… "

"Angry" the monk nodded at Robin's answer "I guess, then, that I have you to thank for me being who I am today, Monk Kunchen" Robin smiled, so did Kunchen and the other monks of the council. It had taken him a while but Robin had figured it out.

The council moved and got up, they were going to take his friends on a tour of the temple; leaving Robin and Kunchen alone, to talk. Robin felt out of place in front of the man who taught Bruce everything. He hoped he wasn't drooling too much and tried to engage Kunchen in small talk. It didn't work. The old Monk realised the attempt and smiled, he slowly got up from his chair and beckoned Robin to follow him.

"He may not be your real father but you are so much like him, confident, knowledgeable, wise and, dare I say it, a little mischievous. You have grown up so much since I last saw you." Kunchen had started to walk to the other side of the room, towards the exit, or so Robin thought. "Bruce was here a couple of weeks ago actually. He couldn't stop talking about you; he was so proud of how you have found your own path and of course how you have matured since forming the Titans." The monk was slowly moving away from the door towards the large paintings on the wall.

"It's a story" Robin whispered to himself, unfortunately Monk Kunchen heard.

"Oh yes," the monk said smiling, then his expression dropped; "but it's more than that, these paintings are of an ancient prophecy, one I fear we have just found ourselves smack bang in the middle of."

Robin raised an eyebrow… which in turn raised one side of his mask higher than the other, and cringed, he HATED prophecies. They never turn out the way they say their supposed to, half of them have changed so much over the years that the true prophecy has been lost in time forever; and then people go and make cults following stupid pieces of literature that may, but most likely are not, true. It did his head in. He had obviously let out a groan because the monk looked on and smiled at him "I know exactly how you feel, half the time these prophecies are fakes, but this one" he waved to the walls "this one is different" he looked solemn then flicked his glistening eyes up to Robin "this one is true". He moved to the wall and pointed out a figure "Recognise her?" it dawned on Robin like a tidal wave crashing down on his head;

"Annistasia…" the drawing was perfect, down to her last curl. Robin's head snapped back to the monk "What does it mean? And I don't mean in monk jibber jabber, please be straight with me" his voice was kind but authoritative

"Plain and simple?"

"Yes"

"Annistasia is going to destroy the world" the monk was crying, it was a strange sight. Robin's heart sank, he felt as though he was on a rollercoaster and it had suddenly plummeted.

"Are you sure? Couldn't it mean something else? Annistasia would never…"

"Not intentionally no but none of us can control what we do unintentionally"

"**Unintentionally?, **Tia would never do that intentionally or unintentionally, she calculates everything, if she is going to 'destroy' the world then she is being forced." That was final, there could be no other reason but just as he finished he was overcome by a sense of guilt, he felt ashamed. He had just barged into their home; he was an outsider, a stranger they had never met before. He shouldn't, couldn't tell them what a prophecy handed down on a temple wall for centuries truly meant. He felt stupid. The monk seemed to sense this and put a hand on Robin's shoulder guiding him away from the walls and the testy subject and on to a place that he knew Robin would like. He started talking to Robin about Bruce and his stay there. It had been an eventful one to say the least; especially when it came to food. When it came to training the body and mind Bruce was a natural; but he wasn't natural at cooking. He had given half the temple food poisoning when trying to make quiche. Now Robin knew why Alfred was around, Bruce literally couldn't survive without him. Another time trying, but failing, to hone in his cooking skills, Bruce had blown up half the kitchen, something about peanut butter experiments. It took him four weeks of daily bathing to get the peanut smell out of his cloths and hair. By the time they reached his room they were laughing so hard they could barely breathe.

* * *

Kunchen opened the door and they sat down. Robin looked at the room, he didn't know what it was but something looked oddly familiar about it. It felt like Bruce. It felt like home.

The room was plain and barren, but to Robin it held something special. He couldn't explain it, but it did. Robin studied the little room. Its walls were the original grey-brown colour of the stones that made it, it contained one small window on the wall opposite the door. Below the window was a simple wooden bed with an uncomfortable looking mattress on it, the mattress was covered with an old grey sheet, barely visible. His attention was swiftly drawn away from the bed as to the foot of it; there was a small wooden, carved, chest. He slowly approached it. Cautiously he reached out his hand. The box was handmade, the decoration was probably hand carved by a monk in the temple. It was beautiful. The more Robin looked at it the more he was entranced by it. All he wanted to do was touch it. He could hear Kunchen's deep laugh and laboured breathing in the back of his mind, but it didn't bother him. All that mattered was the box. His hand moved closer, it was calling to him. He could no longer hear the monk, he didn't know if he had stopped laughing or if he had blocked out his sense of hearing, he didn't really care. His fingers hovered over the box. He absentmindedly traced the groves on the top, staring intently on the lock. It was the only metal object on the wooden chest and its intricate design flowed from the carvings of the rest of the bock, if it had been made of wood you probably would have missed it. It looked familiar somehow. He couldn't quite place it. It wasn't a normal lock, it didn't have a keyhole, but instead it had a number of intertwining tubes that looked as if they moved. He moved his hand over it. It was smooth and cold. He reasoned it was made of brass. He couldn't figure out how to open it.

"It was made by your father for his wife" Kunchen's deep voice broke him out of his trance like state in a snap. He looked up. He saw Kunchen's then exceedingly large figure towering over him. Robin's eyes flicked back to the box. He couldn't help but be curious to what was inside. Kunchen took hold of his hand; Robin hadn't noticed he was reaching towards it again. He felt the monk's eyes burning him, studying his reaction to the box. He quickly recoiled his hand; avoiding the box at all costs he drew his gaze to the old man.

"So Robin, what can I do for you?" Robin looked into the monk's deep blue eyes; all he could see was peace and love. He felt his cheeks heating up, he was so nervous; he had no idea how he was going to tell his sister's mentor that she had been kidnapped. Or how was he going to explain why he needed their help… he had waited too long, his expression had fallen, his eyes had lost their signature shine of hope, Kunchen knew something was wrong; "Robin, what's happened, is Bruce…?"

"Bruce is fine, it's Tia…" He trailed off he could see Kunchen knew what he was talking about; and he didn't want to say it, saying it made him feel worse. Kunchen's red face had suddenly become white. Robin wanted to say something, but he couldn't find the words. There was a deathly silence. Kunchen was obviously as distressed as Robin; he was close to tears;

"What happened?"

"It was just before her speech at her graduation ceremony, these… pig men came and kidnapped her, she left us a message on her PDA," he took it out of his pocket and showed him the message "apparently they are not that smart and so we surmised they must be working for someone, then we tracked Tia to somewhere in this mountain range, and I knew the Temple of the Western Spirit was around here and that you know the area and the people in it, so I thought you could help me get my sister back… you can can't you." He finished his explanation in one large breath. The monk looked at the floor;

"I knew they knew, but I didn't think they would go this far"

"Who knew what? How far?" the monk took a deep breath in, and started to explain things a little bit

"The Order of the Black Sun and their Shadow Assassins" Kunchen whispered under his breath, it was no more than that, a whisper but Robin still heard it

"What?"

"The people who kidnapped Tia are called The Order of the Black Sun. Out to bring about a new world order by initiating the prophecy on the walls; destroying the world and building one in their image. They are highly trained martial arts masters. The most highly trained of the Order form a small sect called the Shadow Assassins." He could see the confusion in Robin's face… The pig-men "The Order likes to do… experiments. The pig-men are one of these; I'm surprised they managed to get Tia, she is a martial arts master."

"She's the daughter of Bruce Wayne" Robin said simply, foolishly thinking that would be all the explanation needed.

"And… he is a martial arts master in his own right…"

'Stupid Scout, remember this isn't Maycomb' Robin thought, he almost screamed. To Kill a Mockingbird was the literary text he had been studying for his English Lit Midterm. He was sick of it and now he was applying it to his real (or at least superhero) life. It was a nightmare.

Robin took a deep breath then started his explanation.

"Back in Gotham Bruce decided to use his new found skills in fighting crime, but he's a multi-billionaire and getting their hands dirty isn't something multi-billionaires do, so he used the disguise of The Batman to carry out his plan, hence I am wearing this brightly coloured heavily reliant on the world's ability to make Kevlar suit and calling myself Robin instead of Richard, which you can call me by the way, or Dick I don't mid. The only problem with Bruce's plan was that he had to pretend that Bruce Wayne was a 'playboy' and didn't care for anything in the world. Barely anybody knew about Tia's martial arts skills and even fewer knew she was attending Harvard. Most just believed she was a good-for-nothing spoiled rich kid who was living off her father's company… even though she basically runs it now… and has invented most of its products" Kunchen was sat slumped his face in his hands, head shaking;

"It doesn't matter what precautions you took to protect your identities, The Order of the Black Sun will find you, they always do." He took a deep breath and relaxed himself as much as he could. He was preparing. He suddenly stared directly at Robin his eyes were tearing to the point that they looked like sparkly blue glitter in the moonlight. It was then Robin noticed it was night. He started to panic, his sister had been missing for over a day, and they were nowhere near finding her. In his anger he had to look away from his friend, he didn't want Kunchen to see him like this; he looked as though he was ready to kill. In a way he was so angry he could've killed someone; but his anger was not directed at another rather at himself. He had let this happen to Tia, it was his fault and he was wasting time in solving the problem. He walked, passed the box, to the small window and gazed out in an attempt to calm himself down. He lost his breath. The view was so beautiful he could've spent an eternity looking at it, and always finding something new. The moon was full and the sky clear. He thought he could see millions if not billions of stars. He saw some constellations Tia had been teaching him. Most however were masked by the towering mountains all around them. Their snow-capped tops looked like ghosts in the cool night air. The snow glistening in the moonlight. It surprised Robin that, even though they were on top of a mountain he was warm, comfortable. In that brief moment he felt his anger melt away. Kunchen had his hand on Robins shoulder and was to looking out of the window.

"We need to find your friends who are somewhere in the depths of this temple, and get your sister back before she destroys the world… a normal Wednesday?" He smiled and Robin couldn't help smiling too.

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**Please Review :)**

**Oh and give yourself a virtual cookie if you spotted the Avatar: the last air bender reference ;)**


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